The remnants of the rope still hung from the tree branch. It had been years since anyone used it.
“We used to catch crawdads here.”
“I’ve never seen one,” she said.
“The real name for them is crayfish. They’re indigenous to this area, and to Arkansas, but they’ve spread all over the south.” I showed her what their little mud houses looked like, and she poked around, looking at it from all angles. “We can bring some bait next time.”
“Do people eat them?”
“Oh yeah. Some people have entire crawdad boil parties, where they cook buckets of them. They look like miniature lobsters.”
“I don’t know if I’ll eat one, but I’d love to catch one.”
A long black snake slithered by as we crawled back in the boat. “That one’s not poisonous,” I said. “But the water moccasins are. Those will kill you.”
She seemed fascinated by the wildlife, and she took her shoes off and waded in the edge of the cool water. “I grew up walking along Lake Michigan, but it was in the city, where everything’s really nice and manicured. When we went on trips, they were always on very controlled excursions. We never got to just explore.”
I stepped toward her, and pulled her in. The last of the daylight filtered through the thick canopy of tree leaves. “When we finally get to leave town,” I said, tangling my hands in her hair. “I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”
“Anywhere?”
“Yes. Anywhere.”
I didn’t have the kind of wealth Ava had grown up with, but I had plenty of money to take her on some freaking cool trips. “The first thing I’m going to do is take you to Utah. We camp in the National Park in Zion, and hike the Narrows. It’s a river valley with some of the best views you’ve ever seen.”
“I’d love that. I’ve been to Utah, but only to ski in Park City.”
“You’re going to love it.” And I would love getting to spend the night in a tent with her. I pressed my mouth to hers, savoring the way she tasted like sugar cookie batter today. Reluctantly, I pulled back. “It’s getting dark. We better go.”
I got us back to land, and then we went straight to the Catfish Bay Restaurant. It was the kind of place where they served beer in a tin bucket. The decor consisted of plastic red and white checkered tablecloths and a roll of paper towels for napkins. Country westeren music blared non-stop from tan old radio in the corner of the room.
Ava studied the menu. “I’ve never had catfish before.”
“Really? Never?” How was that possible?
“No. We ate seafood, but it was usually mahi mahi or salmon.”
Of course. “I need two catfish specials, please,” I said to the waitress. Once she was gone, I handed Ava a pile of paper towels. “You don’t need to look at a menu here. But you will need these.” Every item on the menu was fried.
I grabbed a few of the empty sauce cups and started adding horseradish, tartar sauce and ketchup and mixed it up with a plastic spoon. “Here’s your cocktail sauce. You can dip your fish and your hush puppies in that.”
When the food arrived, Ava blew out a big breath. “That is a lot of food.”
“You can handle it. Dig in.”
She dipped the salty piece of catfish in the cocktail sauce. She chewed for a moment and then she sat up straight. “Wow. This is good. No wonder this place is packed.”
“People come from several counties away just to eat here.”
“I’ll look forward to coming back.” She took a sip of her beer. “I don’t want to over eat though.”
“Why not?”
She pursed her full lips. “Because. I have plans for you tonight.”
Damn. Her words went straight to my cock. I pulled out my wallet. “Well in that case, I think I better pay our check.”
I didn’t want to wait a second longer for another night with Ava.
Chapter Nineteen
Ava
“Here’s another batch of chocolate chip cookies,” I said. “And tomorrow I’ll bring peanut butter.”
Tyler’s secretary, Mrs. Smith, smiled at me as I handed her a tin of cookies. “And what’s after that?”
“Snickerdoodle,” I said.
She beamed at me and then looked back at her boss. “Tyler, you are a lucky man to have such talent around.”
“I am aware of that fact,” he said as we left the office for the day and drove to the grocery store.
Thanksgiving was coming, and I was determined to make a really good dinner. In my family, we’d never cooked at